Discovery to Clinical Development

Team

The team has broad ranging expertise in research, drug discovery, drug development, commercialisation and financing.

Chronos has extensive knowledge of CNS disease genetics, epigenetics as well as cellular ageing mechanisms and screening techniques. The team has delivered numerous pre‐clinical disease models and has decades of experience in drug development, regulatory approval, pricing and commercialisation.

Board of Directors

Theodora Harold MA (Cantab)Non-Executive Director

Theodora Harold is a chartered accountant with significant experience as a Chief Financal Officer with early stage and growing companies in the biotech sector. She has a background in both industry and corporate finance with c.20 years of experience with private and listed biotech SMEs. Theodora has held various roles including at Cytomyx Holdings plc, OrthoMimetics Ltd, MISSION Therapeutics Ltd and PsiOxus Therapeutics Ltd. Prior to this, Theodora trained with PricewaterhouseCoopers and read Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Dr. Chris Towler PhDNon-Executive Director

Chris Towler spent 23 years at Glaxo and GlaxoWellcome, 13 of which were as leader of a project management organisation within the Development Directorate, followed by a period as head of International and Manufacturing Regulatory Affairs. Chris led the development teams responsible for bringing a number of major novel therapies including Imigran, Zofran and Relenza to the market, served as a member of the Corporate Strategy Team and was closely involved with organisational change and post-merger integration projects.

He joined Imperial College London in 2001 to assist the new Vice Chancellor, Sir Richard Sykes, particularly in the realms of strategic planning, complex project management, commercialisation of science and communication before joining Oxford University in 2008 as Director of Oxford Spinout Equity Management.

He holds a PhD in Biochemistry and undertook a number of years of post-doctoral research in the area of onco-foetal antigens and placental growth monitoring.

Dr. Huw Jones PhDChief Executive Officer

Huw holds a PhD in pharmacology from the University of Birmingham, UK and has over twenty-five years experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. He has built several start-up companies and delivered development plans in a wide range of therapy areas. He has supervised over fifteen product launches in Europe and has completed numerous product and company acquisitions and divestments.

As a founding partner of Daffodil Consulting LLP, Huw has advised many biotech companies on US and EU development, pricing and re-imbursement and commercialisation. He was a director of Ardana plc. and was previously President, Europe for CV Therapeutics Inc. Other appointments include Chairman, Ashbourne Pharmaceuticals, Senior Vice President, Northern Europe, for Elan Pharmaceuticals, building European operations from a start-up to a 600 person division, and UK marketing director for SmithKlineBeecham Pharmaceuticals, now part of GlaxoSmithKline plc.

Dr. Michael Moore PhD, DSc, FRCpathSenior Non-Executive Director

Michael Moore began his career at the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research and Manchester University, where he was Reader in Experimental Oncology and Immunology and sometime Editor-in Chief of the British Journal of Cancer.

He entered the UK biotechnology industry in 1989, subsequently becoming a director of Xenova Group, which went public on NASDAQ (1994) and LSE (1996). He facilitated the divestment of the Group’s drug discovery division, assisted in the consolidation of Xenova as an oncology-focused business and played a major role in the acquisition and integration of the biologics company Cantab Pharmaceuticals (2000) in the capacity of Chief Scientific Officer.

In 2002, Dr Moore became Chief Executive Officer of Piramed Limited, a private UK-based biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery and development of small molecule inhibitors of PI 3-kinases. Piramed is credited with bringing this new class of drug to clinical trial on behalf of Cancer Research UK, the Institute of Cancer Research and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Piramed entered into collaboration with Genentech in 2005 with a headline valuation of $230 million and was subsequently acquired by Roche in 2008.

Dr Moore practises as a biopharmaceutical consultant and business angel with a portfolio of non-executive directorships, including Chairman of Trillium Therapeutics Inc., a private Toronto-based biologics company, Myotec, a speciality pharma company spun out of Imperial College London and Charité University, Berlin and Oxford BioTherapeutics, a cancer antibody therapy-based company. He is also a Professor Associate in the Department of Cancer Genetics and Pharmacogenomics in the Brunel Institute.

Christian Hoyer Millar MA, Hons (Oxon)Director

Christian read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Lincoln College, Oxford. His career started at the Boston Consulting Group where he worked both in Europe and the USA. He then moved to the UK Holding Company of the German/Dutch Conglomerate, Hoogovens, as a director of a number of the subsidiaries in the UK, winning the Queen’s award for exports.

He then became a Vice President of Fox Pitt Kelton, where he worked on the mergers and acquisitions of US Regional Banks until the company went public at which point he was headhunted to run a venture capital firm in conjunction with Ensign Trust plc. owned by the Merchant Navy Pension Fund.

Since then Christian has worked in venture capital including as a founder of an Ofex listed company and a founding shareholder in an AIM listed company. He is additionally CEO of Oxford Biodynamics Limited, an Oxford University spin-out diagnostic company and Sibelius Limited, the sister company of Chronos, developing natural products. He has extensive commercial experience in the USA and Asia.

Martin Diggle MA (Oxon)Non-Executive Director

Martin is a founder of Vulpes Investment Management, a Cayman Fund Manager which currently manages five funds including the Vulpes Life Sciences Fund, Chronos Therapeutics’ largest shareholder. An investment professional with over 29 years’ experience in investment banking and fund management, Martin has extensive, first-hand knowledge of the global financial markets.

Martin has been an investor in life sciences and biotechnology since 1999 and has developed a passionate interest in the sector having worked closely with several companies as a stakeholder over the past decade.

Management Team

Dr. Timothy Schulz-Utermoehl PhDVP Pre-Clinical Development

Dr Schulz-Utermoehl has over 17 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, spanning early and late-stage discovery research and preclinical development. He has held senior roles at Shire, AstraZeneca and Merck. Prior to co-founding Polleo Pharma, Dr Schulz-Utermoehl was a Director within the Exploratory Projects Department for Shire Speciality Pharmaceuticals in the UK. Dr Schulz-Utermoehl carried out post-doctoral research at Novo Nordisk A/S, holds a PhD in Biochemistry from Imperial College London, an MSc in Toxicology from the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London and a BSc in Pharmacology/Physiology from the University of Leeds.

Dr. Fraser Murray PhD MBAVP Pre-Clinical Development

Dr Murray brings more than 20 years’ of drug discovery and early development experience across a range of therapeutic areas, including neurodegeneration, psychiatry, inflammation and dermatology. He has held leadership roles at Shire, AstraZeneca and Merck. Prior to co-founding Polleo Pharma and raising investment to fund the portfolio, Dr Murray was Senior Director and Head of Discovery Biology for Shire Speciality Pharmaceuticals, focused on CNS and GI disorders. Dr Murray holds a PhD from The School of Pharmacy UCL, a BSc from the University of Strathclyde and an MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School.

Professor Peter Jenner DScChief Scientific Officer

Peter is a specialist in preclinical aspects of neurodegenerative diseases, notably Parkinson’s disease. He was Head of Pharmacology for 14 years at King’s College London before returning to his research roots and subsequently becoming Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology. Peter has expertise in drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics but neuropharmacology based on functional models of neurodegenerative diseases has formed the major focus of his work. Peter holds a BPharm, PhD and DSc from the University of London. He has published more than 700 peer reviewed papers along with many chapters and monographs. He is a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the British Pharmacological Society, the Royal Society of Medicine and of King’s College London.

Peter has worked closely with the pharmaceutical industry for many years. He has a wide knowledge of the drug discovery and drug development process and has been involved from molecule synthesis through to drug registration. Peter was the Founder, Director and CSO of Proximagen, a biotech focussed on the treatment and cure of neurodegenerative diseases that was listed on AIM and subsequently sold to a US-based healthcare company. He is a regular speaker at international meetings and also takes time to speak at patient-carer groups across the UK. Peter works closely with Parkinson’s UK and the Cure Parkinson’s Trust.

Martin Reeves Strategic Advisor

Martin Reeves has over 30 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry and has advised several companies on their corporate development strategy. He was Vice President and Head of Sourcing in Teva’s Global Branded Products Division based in the US and spent 14 years at Cephalon Inc, a leading US specialty pharmaceutical company, where he was Vice President of Business Development, Strategic Planning & Project Management. During this period he played a key part in the growth of company and latterly via a licencing and acquisition strategy, built Cephalon’s product pipeline which lead to the successful sale of Cephalon to Teva for $6.3B in 2011.

Prior to his experience at Cephalon, he had worked in Research and Development in several positions including Director, Project Management at Wyeth US and as a Project Director at SmithKline Beecham UK.

He is a graduate of London University having gained his degree in Biochemistry in 1980.

Mark Donaldson BA, FCCAFinance Director

Mark read Accounting and Finance before qualifying as a Chartered Certified Accountant in 2004. He started his career in practice working with companies of all sizes, gaining experience in both funding and strategic matters. Mark left Grant Thornton UK in 2009 and founded Mint Consult Ltd which has advised pharmaceutical, biotechnology, manufacturing and tech companies in the capacity as CFO. Mark has provided consultancy to companies on corporate transactions, with experience of equity fundraising, grant funding and IPO.

Dr. Kevin Thompson DPhilDirector, Chronoscreen™

Kevin graduated from the University of Sussex with a BSc in Biology and a DPhil in Developmental Neurobiology. Kevin has nearly 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, ranging from drug discovery teams at Knoll Pharmaceuticals and the University of Nottingham, through contract research organisations providing Hit-to-Lead screening services for Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Amgen, to biotech businesses developing technologies and reagents for the pharmaceutical industry. He has a therapeutic background in CNS, metabolic, oncology and cardiovascular diseases. Central to his career has been a focus on Quality Assurance, demonstrated by his leading role in achieving ISO9001:2000 accreditation for screening services at BioFocus.

Dr. Helen Kuhlman PhDVP Corporate Development

Helen holds a PhD in Cell Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of Leicester. An experienced Biotech professional with a number of years experience in preclinical development she has worked mainly with young companies including; Domantis Ltd, Cambridge Antibody Technology Ltd, Cymbus Biotechnology and SemBioSys Genetics Inc (Calgary, Canada).

On returning to the UK Helen moved into the public sector developing programmes to support innovation in technology intensive SMEs and building knowledge exchange capacity in research institutions at the South West Regional Development Agency. Most recently Helen has been working with the UK government’s Technology Strategy Board where, amongst other programmes, she was responsible for creating and delivering the £180m Biomedical Catalyst funding programme.

Tanya Palmer Clinical Development Director

Tanya graduated with a dual honours degree in physiology and pharmacology and has over 20 years clinical research experience in pharmaceutical/biotech companies and CROs having worked with Amgen, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, Hospira, Sophiris Bio Corp, Almac Discovery, Dermira, Origin and Constella Group. Tanya has worked in a number of disease areas including: oncology, haematology, gastroenterology, neurology and urology with biotech therapies in complex, hospital-based settings. She has extensive experience of either managing or overseeing European or international programmes.

Dr. Huw Jones PhDChief Executive Officer

Huw holds a PhD in pharmacology from the University of Birmingham, UK and has over twenty-five years experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. He has built several start-up companies and delivered development plans in a wide range of therapy areas. He has supervised over fifteen product launches in Europe and has completed numerous product and company acquisitions and divestments.

As a founding partner of Daffodil Consulting LLP, Huw has advised many biotech companies on US and EU development, pricing and re-imbursement and commercialisation. He was a director of Ardana plc. and was previously President, Europe for CV Therapeutics Inc. Other appointments include Chairman, Ashbourne Pharmaceuticals, Senior Vice President, Northern Europe, for Elan Pharmaceuticals, building European operations from a start-up to a 600 person division, and UK marketing director for SmithKlineBeecham Pharmaceuticals, now part of GlaxoSmithKline plc.

Dr. David Eckland PhD, FRCPChief Medical Officer

David is a highly experienced pharmaceutical and biotechnology physician. After extensive experience in hospital practice and academic medicine, he worked with GlaxoSmithKline and Takeda as well as small pharmaceuticals companies, successfully developing small molecules as well as biotechnology products. David obtained degrees in Biochemistry and Medicine from the University of London, after which he specialised in Endocrinology, Diabetes and General (Internal) Medicine. He has a PhD in Neuroendocrinology, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London.

Advisory Board

Dr. Merit Cudkowicz is the Julianne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Cudkowicz completed medical training at the Health Science and Technology program of Harvard Medical School, and she was a resident in Neurology at Mass General. She obtained a Master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Cudkowicz’s research and clinical activities are dedicated to the study and treatment of patients with neurodegenerative disorders, in particular amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Dr. Cudkowicz serves on the Medical Advisory Board for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Massachusetts Chapter of the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association. Dr. Cudkowicz directs the Mass General ALS Program and the Neurological Clinical Research Institute (NCRI) (formerly the NCTU). She is one of the founders and co-directors of the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS), a group of 109 clinical sites in the United States and Canada dedicated to performing collaborative academic led clinical trials in ALS. In conjunction with the NEALS consortium, she planned and completed seven multi-centre clinical trials in ALS and is currently leading three new trials in ALS. In 2009 Professor Cudkowicz received the American Academy of Neurology Sheila Essay ALS award.

Professor Jane Mellor PhD University of OxfordAdvisor

Jane read bacteriology and virology at the University of Manchester and got her PhD from the University of Reading (with her research based at the Institute for Animal Health). She started her career as a postdoctoral research scientist at the University of Oxford. She then moved on to become a research fellow at Wolfson and Exeter Colleges, Oxford University. In 1989, she became a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in basic biomedical sciences. Her teaching career started in 1991 and to date she has tutored and supervised more than 20 graduate students gaining their doctorates. Jane has published more than 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals and in 2008 was made a Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford.

Alexandre Akoulitchev MA, Hons (Oxon), PhD, FRSMAdvisor

Sasha read mathematics, physics, chemistry, biochemistry and biophysics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. In 1989 he was selected by the George Soros Foundation to study for a year at the University of Oxford along with 20 other top Soviet graduate students. In 1994 he obtained his PhD in cell biology from University College London (with his research based at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund). Sasha spent six years at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, NJ, USA as a research assistant funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Upon his return to England in 2001, he was awarded a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship and established a research laboratory at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, with the focus on biochemistry of transcriptional mechanisms, non-coding regulatory RNAs and early epigenetic events. Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council supported this research and its results were widely publicized.

Before moving full-time to Oxford BioDynamics as a Company Director in 2007, Sasha was a University Academic Fellow (Research Council UK) and a Senior Research Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.